81 Time flies quickly, it is now the spring of the third year of Baoyou, and it has been almost four years since Zhou Dao came to this world. He remembered that when he first came, it was the end of the summer of the eleventh year of Chunyou, and he still doesn't know how many years it should be, but he thinks that this is always the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, right? Officials often change the era name many times according to their mood, not only to change the emperor, but more often to use the emperor's era name for a few years, I don't know what idea to change the era name, it seems that people will not stop. So Zhou Dao set his own year, and set the eleventh year of his first arrival as one year, and so on, and in a few months, it will be the fifth year of his arrival.

Last year's autumn harvest, Zhou Dao really made a lot of money, and in the early spring of this year, his tentacles began to extend to the state city of Zizhou. Previously, Zhou Dao's contact with the state city was basically limited to selling grain to the two grain merchants in the state city. This year, in March, Zhou Dao opened a gambling house in the prosperous area of the state city, named "Xin Sihai".

To this end, Zhou Dao transferred Wu Disaster Wu Neng and seven or eight guys to the state capital, and recruited another group of people in the local area, and at the same time made every effort to promote their new business "Buzi". Although the word divination has only been done for a long time, in their territory Ziyang County, it has become popular, and now it has become the most profitable piece of the gambling house.

Greed is human nature, their new gambling method effectively induces people's greed, to fight big is simple and easy, the streets and alleys can usually find their divination outlets. He turned this form of gambling into a part of people's lives, but small or big and not to affect people's lives, the threshold is very low, and it is pleasing to hear, as long as the dealer has established the so-called reputation.

On the third day of opening, Xin Sihai was smashed by someone. More than 20 people came from the other side, made trouble under the pretext of making trouble, and then smashed the gambling house. Wu Neng and many guys were injured, but fortunately it wasn't too serious, one guy's arm and the other's leg and flank were fractured, and the other party didn't kill him. After all, you can't make a fuss in the city, and the other party has injured six or seven. Even if they were not well prepared, the brothers still made a deep impression on the people who smashed the field, and many of Hopseon's men were practitioners.

The guys recruited from the local area recognized a few troublemakers, saying that they were from Baoyuanfang, a large local gambling house. After getting the news, Zhou Dao brought another twenty people over. There were two special people accompanying him, one of them was the county lieutenant Fang Xu, who resigned from the state city on business, and Zhou Dao accompanied Shangzhou City to see his cousin, Zizhou Tong sentenced Fang Qizhou. It is said that Fang Tongju's mother is about to celebrate her birthday, and Zhou Dao is led by Fang Xu to visit him in advance. At the time of his birthday, he immediately offered a gift of 200 yuan, and was able to meet Fang Tongju in the back hall accompanied by Fang Xu. said that he had done some small business in Ziyang County, and he was often taken care of by the county lieutenant Fang, and now there is some business in the state town. Hearing that the old mother of the general judge was on her birthday, she came to congratulate the county lieutenant on her birthday, and it was a blessing to see the old birthday star. The guest and host exchanged a few words, said something innocuous and sent the guests off with tea.

When he got out, Fang Xu took out a sticker from his arms and handed it to Zhou Dao to see, Zhou Dao still understood it, this was the door sticker of Lord Fang. Fang Xu took back the post and put it in his arms, "Let's go, let's go and see Master Hu Qinghu, the manager of the army." ＂

When he arrived at Hu's Mansion, Fang Xu handed over the door sticker of Lord Fang, so that Zhou Dao could wait in the gatehouse together. After a while, the middle door opened, and a middle-aged man in civilian clothes greeted him. This person is Hu Qing, Fang Xu has met him twice, and then introduced Zhou Dao to him, and the three of them politely entered the Hu Mansion. Hu Qing joined the army as the manager of the state capital, and his function was to assist the two chief officials of Zhizhou and Tongju, and was in charge of the state's criminal prisons and thefts. The previous manager died in the army, Hu Qing was transferred to the state city for less than a year, he was Fang Xu's superior, but Fang Xu's background was different, although he was not familiar, Hu Qing was still very kind to Fang Xu. Fang Xu was even more familiar, and as he spoke, it was convenient for Hu Qing to call his brother and brother up, and after sitting down for a while, he motioned to Zhou Dao to take out the gifts prepared in advance.

Zhou Dao took a small burden carried by Wu Disaster, opened it and saw a beautiful black lacquered wooden box wrapped in a layer of red cloth, and when he opened the lid, he saw a golden Buddha the size of a thumb, which was shining with golden light. "I heard that adults believe in Buddhism, this is what I specially invited from the Seven Star Temple, and the abbot said that it is very effective! A little heart, the first meeting is not a respect. Zhou Dao said, and Fang Xu on the side echoed with a smile.

That Hu Qing saw that it was the Golden Buddha, and looked at Zhou Dao again, but he didn't take it, and said with a smile, "This Zhou Gongzi is polite, you are a friend of Lord Fang Xu, I am welcome to come to me for tea and chat, but I can't stand to give such a heavy gift when we meet for the first time." Zhou Dao was holding the Golden Buddha in his hand, but the other party didn't answer it, he was somewhat embarrassed and looked at Fang Xu.

Seeing this, Fang Xu immediately took over the conversation, "Brother Hu, you are too worried, my brother Zhou is generous and righteous, and he is very good at dealing with people, and he has done a prosperous business in Ziyang County in just a few years." He really came to Zhoucheng this time to do some business, and when he heard that I was coming to visit Brother Hu, he came with him to make friends, so as to accumulate some contacts for the future, and he had no other intentions. I will see more in the future, and Brother Hu will understand. ”

Hu Qing smiled and asked Zhou Dao, "What kind of business is Gongzi Zhou doing in the state city?" "Oh, in fact, I have always had some business dealings with several grain merchants in the state city before, and this time I went to the state city just to open another gambling house. We are doing well in the gambling house in Ziyang, so we want to come to Zhou City to give it a try, and I hope that Lord Hu will take more care of it in the future. ”

As far as the matter is concerned, this time Zhou Dao marched into the state city, and it was a bit of a trick in the steps, and it was usually necessary to establish contacts first, find out the situation up and down, and then it would not be too late to do it. But Zhou Daobian was a little anxious, he wanted to do it at the same time, in short, he wanted to further do the business in the state city. This is certain, if you want to be bigger, you must have a larger platform and space, and the county and the state city are not the same in terms of pattern, capacity and even radiation range. In Zhou Dao's view, he doesn't have time to work hard in the county, he is about to expand, from the county seat to the state city, which is necessary.

Hu Qing nodded and smiled, looked at Fang Xu and then at Zhou Dao, "Even if it was recommended by Lord Fang, I don't think it will be bad, then Brother Zhou, I will make you a friend, don't let me regret it in the future?" Ha ha. Zhou Dao and Fang Xu were overjoyed when they heard this, and all three of them laughed.